About Yam Fries

Persistence. The dictionary defines it as the act of continuing in an opinion or course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition.

A research defines it as the quality that allows someone to continue doing something or trying to do something even though it is difficult or opposed by other people.

I’ll simply say Persistence is you wanting something badly enough that you don’t stop, don’t get distracted until you’ve gotten it.

Travel with me on this journey;

You want to eat yam fries, you have a picture in your head of nicely fried, well-spiced yam.

You start by cutting the tuber of yam into slices, but along the line, the knife gets blurred, so you go and re-sharpen it. Now, it’s time to slice off the  peel , you start doing that too, but along the line, you press too hard on the handle and it breaks off. You feel a little frustrated, but you go look for another knife and voila! You’re back on course. You keep un-peeling until you’re done, then you cut into big chunks and rinse well, singing a song, imagining the finished product right?

Now, you cut them into thin slices and prepare to fry. Then you discover you’re out of spices for the yam and oil for frying… and guess what?! It’s raining heavily, so you can’t step out to buy anything until the rain stops. You wait…and wait…and wait…and wait…finally it stops. Perhaps at this time, you’re wondering if you should just soak garri instead, settle for something else, as long as belle full abi? You can just pack your raw yam slices into the freezer. But if you don’t, on we go.

You grab your umbrella and go outside into the drizzling rain. You buy your spices, and if you find yourself in some annoying shop? They’ll tell you they don’t have change. So you wait for change until FINALLY they have. Then off to buy vegetable oil and rush home. Now, you heat up the oil, but in a few seconds the fire goes off and you discover you’re out of cooking gas!  Do you give up?.. Yes? …No?... If no, let’s roll.

You shout, scream, rant, rave, vent, ask God “wetin be dis na?!”...then you pick up your gas cylinder to go buy some.  You get to the gas place and discover a long queue, sighing heavily, you join the queue. While waiting, someone on queue strikes up a conversation with you. From a seemingly simple conversation, you and this person make a strong connection; it could be business, a job, or relationship, or a brilliant idea. Now, you forget all about waiting in line and all the stress you’ve been through, you’re extremely glad you came out at that particular time. Getting back home, you’re able to fry the yam to your heart’s content.

At the end, while you’re seated on that sofa, legs on the table, big smile on your face, watching the latest installment of Marvel’s Avengers, your heart is full of joy because you didn’t just get the food you dreamed about, your life changed too through the connection you made. DOUBLE BLESSING!
That’s what persistence is. Staying the course despite what (or who).

 My Dears, how badly do you want your yam fries?

Have a blessed day and fantastic week Darlings!